Pioneer Minerals (ASX:PMM) has appointed former Barrick Mining (NYSE:B) executives as its in-country exploration and project management for the San Francisco Gold-Copper-Silver Project in the San Juan province of Argentina.
The appointment of Andes Exploration for the San Francisco Project signifies an “important step” in Pioneer’s rapid exploration strategy.
Headed by Barrick’s former VP of Exploration Leandro Sastre Salim, Andes has already commenced a comprehensive review of historical surface geochemistry at San Francisco to prioritise gold, copper, and silver anomalies.
Salim is Andes’ CEO and brings more than 25 years of international mining experience in mineral exploration, resource evaluation, technical services, and project development. His experience spans Argentina, Chile, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Guyana.
In his previous role with Barrick, Salim oversaw exploration activities across multiple jurisdictions and major mining operations.
At Barrick’s Veladero gold mine, he held the role of mineral resource and technical services manager, and also formerly acted in senior geological management positions at Austral Gold (ASX:AGD).
Salim will lead Andes in providing strategic exploration direction, technical oversight, and senior management support for San Francisco.
The team also includes Sebastián Juárez as the geology manager and Pablo Elgueta Zarhi as the CTO.
Juárez has 19 years of experience in mineral exploration, mine geology, geological modelling, and mineral resource evaluation.
He previously acted as the district exploration geologist for Argentina at Barrick, as well as the head of geology and mineral resources at the Veladero gold mine.
Juárez will provide specialist technical support in geological interpretation, exploration targeting, modelling, and exploration program design as required.
Zarhi is an experienced mining engineer with more than 25 years banked up in mining technology, geological information management, and technical systems integration.
He previously acted as senior manager of geoinformation for Latin America at Barrick, overseeing regional geological information systems and the integration of exploration and operational data.
Previously, Zarhi also held technical integration and business improvement positions at Newmont’s (NYSE:NEM) Cerro Negro operation in Argentina.
In collaboration with Andes, Pioneer has commenced two key technical work programs which intend to establish a systematic exploration strategy and identify priority targets for the next phase of work.
Aside from the ongoing comprehensive review of historical surface geochemistry, the companies are undergoing a detailed 3D geological modelling of the San Francisco breccia pipe.
Pioneer Minerals is an explorer focused on discovering critical minerals in North America and Namibia, with an emphasis on tungsten, uranium, and lithium.
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
Main Image: Pioneer Minerals
